Imagination

After a poor showing in May I am determined to keep this website on track and so an update begins, the first of two this week, so pop by later this week for more tales from the Bagnalls!

Our holiday in Kent seems a long distant memory as I write this. Back to work and back into the mælstrom that is Wimbledon. Yes, the Tennis Championship not the place (although it is the place – but I think you know what I mean!). Thus the break away from work has been completely wiped out by the lead up to, and the start of the tournament. This meant 11 days in a row including Father’s Day, and long days too! So I have seen very little of either Éowyn or Amélie during daylight. However, both have had a number of sleepless nights and so a good night’s sleep has become an elusive guest at our house. Éowyn has had a wheezy cough which has prevented her from falling (and staying) asleep, while Amélie has been teething. At least there has been fruit from this and Amélie has her first tooth. One of the bottom front teeth has poked it’s way through the gumline and you can feel a couple of the others are not far behind. It must be incredibly painful but hopefully the others will follow smartly and she (and us) can get back to a proper sleep pattern.

One of the troubles of working so many days in a row is that I only get to see the children early in a morning (if I am lucky) and just before bed. This is usually when they are not at their best (if I am honest after a hard day’s work then neither am I). Éowyn picks up on this and will use this weakness to push the boundaries. It is not fun when you get back home and have to employ the use of the naughty step (although we are renaming it the ‘thinking step’ to avoid negative connotations). It can be quiet amusing sometimes though when she has done something naughty and you are explaining that it is naughty. She will stand there before you crying and you are trying to get her to understand what she did was wrong, or get an apology out of her but stubbornly refusing to admit that she has been naughty. So you ask her if she wants to take time to think about it on the naughty (thinking) step and through the sobs she says, ‘Yes please.‘ A very polite way of accepting punishment.

In fairness to her, she will sit on the step for her two minutes (one minute per year of her age – thanks Super Nanny) and will always apologise and then return to her delightful nature afterwards. It is almost that she needs that time for reflection.

Occasionally she will use her imagination to come up with an excuse for her behaviour. An example happening the other evening. I had just got her out of the bath and was getting her ready for bed. I was trying to put her nappy on and she was not having any of it. ‘I don’t want my nappy on.‘ she said. I explained that it was fine not to have a nappy on to go to bed, but if she wanted a wee in the middle of the night that she would have to get out of bed and use the potty. ‘Let me tell you a story.‘ she begun. ‘One day I went to bed without a nappy,‘ she continued, ‘and I needed a wee in the middle of the night, and I went to use the potty and a big dinosaur came and ate me up.‘ I managed not to laugh, but her story had the effect that she convinced herself that she needed her nappy on. Fantastic imagination though, and we will have to nurture that.

Her imagination is manifesting itself in other ways too. She has, what a lot of people have when they are young, an imaginary (or invisible) friend or what is technically know as a quasi-corporeal companion. His name is Sam and he can manifest himself in a variety of colours (not skin tones – actual colours) and a wide range of sizes (from being able to sit comfortably on her thumb, to bigger than Daddy!). Sam even came with us on holiday to Kent and had a bedroom all to himself. She will go weeks without mentioning him and he hasn’t yet come to dinner and we haven’t had to set out a place for him (indeed he didn’t travel with us in the car to Kent but was there – maybe he turned himself very small and travelled on Éowyn’s thumb!) as some children insist. Being of an inquisitive mind (and a bit of a Fortean and generally interested in Forteana) I am quite interested in this kind of behaviour and try to gently prise information out of Éowyn about Sam. I will share my findings with you.

I am also missing Amélie’s developments in locomotion. She is not exactly crawling but she is moving. In fact I think she may be some form of quantum locked being (like the weeping angels from Doctor Who) for whenever you look at her she stops moving (not quite turns to stone) but blink and she is halfway across the room! This movement is still in reverse though. It is as if she doesn’t have a forward gear, a sort of inverse bubble car or as the old joke goes an Italian tank!

Nanny Fran saw a vast difference in Amélie when she (and Auntie Liz and Auntie Mary) popped over on Saturday. It has been a while since we went to Nanny Fran’s and so Amélie has developed (and put on weight – she is happily following the 50th centile now) so much in that time. In addition to the movement, and tooth she is happily stringing consonants together. She mumbles quite happily to herself and it even sounds like she is saying, ‘dadadadadadadadada‘ sometimes, however more often than not it is closer to ‘bababababababababababa‘. I doubt it will take her too longer to be as talkative as her older sister. She is also taking more weight on her legs and will stand for a little while (with you holding her for balance) so maybe she is going to forego the crawling stage and head straight to bipedal locomotion!

As mentioned there will be another update by the end of the week as we have had a busy few days on my days ‘off‘ and they deserve a write up to themselves.